Deterministic surface tractions in rough contact under stick–slip condition: Application to fretting fatigue crack initiation

•Pressure and tangential traction distributions for cyclic loading is presented.•Influence of roughness on traction and sub-surface stress field is evaluated.•Crack initiation life subject to stick–slip fretting is predicted.•Crack initiation risk predictions are compared to experimental results.

A robust approach for the deterministic prediction of pressure distribution in dry rough-line contact configuration considering the elastic-fully plastic asperity effects is presented. Adopting Civarella–Jager approach, a procedure for calculation of the tangential traction distribution for cyclic loading condition in stick–slip regime is also described in detail. The effect of surface roughness on the pressure and tangential traction distribution and sub-surface stress field is evaluated. To illustrate the utility of the approach, the crack initiation risk in a stick–slip (fretting) contact is investigated for different surface roughness values. The methodology is conceptually simple and can be easily implemented in a computer code.